Crimes of the Common CoreBook Review by Janice GrahamThe Story-Killers, A Common Sense Case Against the Common CoreTerrence O. Moore, 2013

Aware parents and sincere teachers are wringing their hands as they suspect a terrible crime being committed. It is the systematic murder of young minds, elementary through high school. At last, the Sherlock Holmes of education has come to strip off the nefarious disguise of the Common Core for all to see. His name is Terrence Moore, teacher, education reformer, and writer with a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, a professor of history at Hillsdale Collage, and founder of numerous classical charter schools. He has expertly and painstakingly done what worried citizens everywhere have wished for: dissected, closely examined, and analyzed the federal Common Core (standards and textbooks) which now controls the testing and curriculum of our public schools and even many private schools in more than forty states. What's in it really? And what is it doing to the vulnerable minds of the rising generation? Terrence Moore tells us in his timely new thriller, The Story-Killers.

I'm dead serious; it's a thriller, a disturbing book that to a lover of literature and learning reads in parts like dark science fiction: Huxley-esque "Brave New Core" or Orwellian "Animal School." I couldn't put it down. It's incredible what's happened to public education and to the nation since it has fallen into the hands of big-money-backed, pseudo-intellectual radical progressives who think they're smarter than the greatest thinking comprising the accumulated history of the age-old human race.

The book poses questions. Did you get a classical education? Will your children and grandchildren? Terrence Moore says no, we probably didn't, that it was in the 1950s that Americans got the last decent education from our public system, and our posterity is totally being thrown under the school bus due to the Common Core.

What is the purpose of educating the young anyway? Moore hones in on what the elites posing as education reformers say they think it is: getting a job. The book is worth reading just to be treated to Moore's refreshing revelation on the false premises behind the ubiquitous phrases "twenty-first century," "global economy," and "college and career readiness," showing how none of these should be primary concerns in educating children. (I was always bothered by the schools trying to pigeon hole my young children into the commercial world and now I know why.) Moore reminds us: "The purpose of a liberal education, then, is more than getting into college or getting a job. Those are byproducts of a liberal education, but not the highest purpose."

"The chief reasons for education are to bring children and young people to an understanding of the human and natural worlds and to teach them virtue and self-government. . . Today's children and young people need to understand human beings and true human happiness no less today than they have in the past. Indeed, given the amount of time they spend on video games and social media on their own, the young people of today may need more study in the humanities than ever before. Therefore they need stories-beautiful and powerful stories that instruct them, that inspire them, that amuse them, and that make them more human."

Young people must be taught "how to bring about beauty and order and justice in the world. First, however, the must learn how to bring order and beauty into their own souls." They learn this by seeing life through the classics, "through the eyes of those who have best understood human life."

"The man or woman who understands human nature and history, and who has a tolerable work ethic and a sound character, will never have trouble getting into college, nor landing a job, nor gaining a public voice, nor knowing what counts for truth, beauty, and goodness in this world. As such, that man or woman will have a much greater chance of obtaining the great end of human life: happiness-the happiness that comes from pursuing truth and living virtuously."

What happens when the rising generation gets a true education? Things like: "Love. Law. Freedom. Science. Culture. Prosperity, Justice. Faith. Happiness." What has resulted from our secularized culture of politically correct malaise and will only further spread in the hands of the Common Core? The opposites of all of the above.

The author's expert analysis focuses specifically on the teaching of great literature, which necessarily includes traditional values, religion, philosophy, and history. Not only has he documented and explained flaws and dangers ingrained in the Common Core (which to the untrained eye may seem innocuous or be obscured), but he has written about it engagingly and well, in total contrast to the pretentious, incomprehensible, boring, and random material displayed in the Common Core Standards and textbooks themselves.

But for all Moore's systematic study and measured and often charitable conclusions, he is righteously indignant, and his literature-loving wife "sick at heart," at the direction our country has taken in the education of children and youth, as should we all be. As I read I began to make a list of adjectives Moore uses in describing parts of the Common Core, including the written standards, teacher prompts, questions, requirements, textbooks, performance tasks, and activities, and I must say these materials speak for themselves. A lot of it truly is: pseudo-scientific, radical, simplistic, insipid, mind-numbing, meaningless, bankrupt, artificial, mechanical, predictable, dreary, boring, lifeless, formulaic, boilerplate, Mickey Mouse, canned, unclear, mush, shoddy, random, disordered, obtuse, biased, drivel, dry-as-dust, irresponsible, intellectual clap-trap, snarky, confusing, a waste, duplicitous, petty, distracting, mishandled, disparate, clueless, slapdash, absurd, mad, culturally worthless, politically charged.

Even if former generations thought school was boring in their day, even if they had a few bad teachers and not enough excellent ones, I'll bet they don't think their education was particularly artificial, biased, duplicitous, worthless, politically-charged madness. Moore convinces us that this is the state to which we have arrived today. Under the direction of the Federal Government and the arch-testers, our children are receiving "a false education." In many instances it's easy to see that the Common Core "offers the facade of learning without any actual learning taking place."

Click here to read the rest of this book review on Standard of Liberty website.

------------ Notable Quote: "Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged. The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith."--Ronald Reagan, 1983------------

How to Defend Against "Gay" Marriage:Short Talking Points You Can Memorizeby Janice Graham

Don't get caught empty-headed! You love people but you know marriage between same sexes is absurd, harmful, and must be opposed. Its advocates have their cunning but shallow arguments down pat. This is a war against God, truth, and reality, a war for the hearts of the rising generation and beyond. You need to have your sound bites ready, too!

A reader asked us to compile a list of brief statements. The following are two lists, one from a religious worldview and the other from an ostensibly nonreligious (scientific, historical, sociological) worldview. They are short and easy to memorize, with key words or letters bolded.

We didn't make these up, but have collected them from many sources across the internet.

Keep this list handy. Go over it regularly in spare moments. Feel free to send more to add to this list.

------------Notable Quote:Although not all marriages result in children, a married couple's infertility is incidental, whereas a same-sex couple's sterility is inherent. An infertile married couple can still comprehensively unite in a way that is procreative in nature, even if not in effect.--Clair Chretien in The Crimson White, 2013------------

If Being Gay Is So Difficult by Janice Graham

If being gay is so difficult, why aren't there tons of studies being done about the causes and effects and treatments of unwanted homosexual lusts and behaviors? We emphasize the word unwanted. Many people insist they do not want these desires. Don't we care about their misery?

We'll tell you why nothing is being done and why grassroots blogs like ours are singled out and denigrated. Because this issue has been totally propagandized, politicized, culturally accepted, and shut down. No honest questions or discussions are allowed. It all amounts to the populace forming exceedingly strong uninformed opinions, opinions fed to the people by trendy, self-interested, secularized institutions. It's about people putting their trust in human beings rather than God, goodness, and truth. After all, those with power and influence can turn human minds anyway they wish, and those with power and influence can be and often are or become nonbenevolent. If you have an opinion about homosexuality that goes against the accumulated wisdom of the human race and God Himself, you might want to think about it a little. Read some books maybe. (Seriously, all these people who think they are so enlightened need to crack a few classics.)

We ask: Is it smart or wise or charitable not to warn young people of some very risky self-determinations, associations, and behaviors? Not to support reality and truth and health and wisdom and God?

Roger Scruton called the "fast and loose accusation of homophobia," bigotry, mental instability, and such, and so-called thought crimes that are not clearly distinguished toward people who question the legitmization of homosexuality, "a serious threat to freedom of speech about an issue of pressing public concern." And yes, the public legitimization and encouragement of alternative sexual identities, lusts, and behaviors (including gay "marriage") is of great public concern. Matt Barber said, "So-called 'homophobia' is not responsible for the fact that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one-in-five '"gay' men and adolescents in major cities across America have been infected - through bad behavior - with HIV/AIDS. Sin is responsible. In almost every category - disease, depression, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide - those who call themselves 'gay' live and die with consequences that have nothing gay, in the true sense of the word, about them."

George Orwell said that societies have always had some strict mores about human sexuality to insure their own survival. -G.K Chesterton said, "All healthy men, ancient and modern, know there is a certain fury in sex that we cannot afford to inflame, and that a certain mystery and awe must ever surround it if we are to remain sane." Isn't it crazy that people are being threatened and punished today for standing for goodness, even for wanting to discuss the dangerous direction our culture has taken? Again, this is why we call ourselves the Standard of Liberty. Our freedom to live and speak according to the dictates of our consciences is at stake in great part because of the homosexual movement. Vulnerable, confused, and damaged young people are being sacrificed to this false god.

Notable Quote:
We need elders and pastors with a vision to establish churches where a person struggling with same-sex attraction or even homosexual practices are lovingly warned, discipled, and given care. We need to continue to declare that homosexuality is not the unforgivable sin, but that repentance is called for. --Jason Helopoulos in The Gospel Coalition. 1/30/2014

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Responding to pressure to unify the church by denying Scripture and accepting homosexual behaviorBy Albert Mohler

Evangelical Christians in the United States now face an inevitable moment of decision. While Christians in other movements and in other nations face similar questions, the question of homosexuality now presents evangelicals in the United States with a decision that cannot be avoided. Within a very short time, we will know where everyone stands on this question. There will be no place to hide, and there will be no way to remain silent. To be silent will answer the question.

The question is whether evangelicals will remain true to the teachings of Scripture and the unbroken teaching of the Christian church for over 2,000 years on the morality of same-sex acts and the institution of marriage.

The world is pressing this question upon us, but so are a number of voices from within the larger evangelical circle-voices that are calling for a radical revision of the church's understanding of the Bible, sexual morality and the meaning of marriage. We are living in the midst of a massive revolution in morality, and sexual morality is at the center of this revolution. The question of same-sex relationships and sexuality is at the very center of the debate over sexual morality, and our answer to this question will both determine or reveal what we understand about everything the Bible reveals and everything the church teaches-even the gospel itself.

Others are watching, and they see the moment of decision at hand. Anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann of Stanford University has remarked that "it is clear to an observer like me that evangelical Christianity is at a crossroad." What is that crossroad? "The question of whether gay Christians should be married within the church." Journalist Terry Mattingly sees the same issue looming on the evangelical horizon: "There is no way to avoid the showdown that is coming."

Into this context now comes God and the Gay Christian, a book by Matthew Vines. Just a couple of years ago, Vines made waves with the video of a lecture in which he attempted to argue that being a gay Christian in a committed same-sex relationship (and eventual marriage) is compatible with biblical Christianity. His video went viral. Even though Vines did not make new arguments, the young Harvard student synthesized arguments made by revisionist Bible scholars and presented a very winsome case for overthrowing the church's moral teachings on same-sex relationships.

His new book flows from that startling ambition-to overthrow two millennia of Christian moral wisdom and biblical understanding.

Given the audacity of that ambition, why does this book deserve close attention? The most important reason lies outside the book itself. There are a great host of people, considered to be within the larger evangelical movement, who are desperately seeking a way to make peace with the moral revolution and endorse the acceptance of openly gay individuals and couples within the life of the church. Given the excruciating pressures now exerted on evangelical Christianity, many people-including some high-profile leaders-are desperately seeking an argument they can claim as both persuasive and biblical. The seams in the evangelical fabric are beginning to break, and Vines now comes along with a book that he claims will make the argument so many are seeking.

Click here to read the remainder of this article on the WorldMag website.

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Notable Quote:We are playing within a reality that the left has constructed, and we have to step out of it."--Mary Summerhays, Celebration of the Family, 2014

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Sin vs. Service: The Issue is Virtue by Linda Harvey on Mission America

Why are conservatives back-peddling on slam-dunk issues like freedom of religion? Because we are being challenged on a core question which we refuse to directly address.

And here it is: what about homosexual behavior? Good, evil, or neutral?

The answer is that homosexuality is always wrong. Objective reasoning shows us that skin color is unchangeable and that racial discrimination is unjust. We can in the same way objectively reason that same sex "marriage" is indefensible because homosexual conduct itself is disordered for human beings.

Didn't Lawrence v Texas settle some of this? Not for those who still use truth as a benchmark.

We aren't fighting to protect marriage because the term and tradition are important. Let's be honest that the only reason for this dispute is because people want to engage in anatomically-challenged behavior that is observably unnatural, medically risky, improper as an example for children, and changeable.

And it's a behavior that God calls sin. There is no other biblical description of homosexuality except always and only, a big taboo.

So in view of marriage law or public accommodations, could the immorality of homosexuality be a rationale for refusing to honor same sex nuptials? Absolutely, it should be. There are multiple grounds including but not limited to religious faith. In most states where this was a dispute - New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado, Illinois --- same sex marriage was not even legal, and the couples had other options.

How in the world do judges rule against photographers, bakers, and bed and breakfast owners whose religious convictions also happen to uphold state law? Only in a time of universal deceit, and their failure to adhere to law is evidence their arguments are built on sand.

It's time to pull the curtain on this wizard, folks. Homosexuality itself is wrong.

The constructed identity of being "gay" is harmful and should not be considered a worthy defense in light of reality. The evidence clearly points to the truth that everyone is intrinsically a heterosexual.

We need to have the guts to stand up and say so. Our defense should not be because we Christians just hope to somehow preserve narrow rights over here in our holy huddle.

It's because homosexuality is unnatural and unnecessary and the harm its advocacy is doing to our culture is apparent to anyone with half a brain, even atheists. Confusion abounds only because we won't state the obvious.

And this doesn't even begin to cover the lunacy of "transgendered" behavior.

Click here to read the remainder of this article on MissionAmerica website.

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Notable Quote: "Every appetite, desire, propensity and impulse of the natural man may be overcome by and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ."

Father Arrested at School Board Meeting for Speaking Against Pornography in 14-year-old Daughter's Reading Assignment from religioushostility.org

A New Hampshire parent was arrested at a Monday night school board meeting after he voiced outrage his ninth grade daughter was assigned a book that contains a page detailing a graphic sexual encounter.

Gilford school officials claim the book, "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult, contains important themes about a school shooting. But some parents believe a scene described in the book is inappropriate for their children.

According to WCVB-TV, the book contains a graphic description of rough sex between two teenagers, which parents were unaware of until the book had already been distributed to their kids.

"I was shocked when I read the passage and not much shocks me anymore," William Baer told EAG News. "My wife was stunned by the increasingly graphic nature of the sexual content of the scene and the imagery it evoked."

"It's absurd," he told the school board.

"Sir, would you please be respectful of the other people?" a school board member responded.

Maybe He's Not Gay by Linda HarveyMy Darling from the Lions by Janice Barrett GrahamChased by an Elephant, the Gospel Truth about Today's Stampeding Sexuality by Janice Barrett Graham (for LDS families with growing children) Wild Elephant, the Gospel Truth about Today's Stampeding Sexualityby Janice Barrett Graham (for families from all Christian denominations with growing children)Me, Tarzan, You Janeby Janice Barrett Graham (for the youngest children)Captain of My Soul by Aaron S. GrantOut From Under, The Impact of Homosexual Parenting by Dawn StefanowiczLight in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change by Arthur GoldbergHomosexuality and the Church of Jesus Christ: Understanding Homosexuality According to the Doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by A. Dean Byrd

If you or anyone you know is troubled with unwanted homosexuality, our website offers help and hope for those who truly desire to overcome it. On our website just click the Get Informed button. You will find helpful resources there: articles, papers, books, websites, videos. Be sure to read "The Only Good Choice," found at the top of our Home Page.